Wen-Ruey Chang
Principal Research Scientist
Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety
Biography
As a Researcher at the Research Institute for Safety of the Liberty Mutual Group, Dr. Chang investigates shoe and floor interfaces with the goal of finding ways to reduce occupational slips and falls. His projects involve identifying preferred, higher-friction microscopic geometric features of floors, measurements of slipperiness, protocol developments for friction measurements, a statistical model to estimate the probability of slip incidents, and ladder safety.
Dr. Chang received the degrees of Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of California at Berkeley. Prior to his current position, he has worked for Digital Equipment Corporation, General Electric Company at its Corporate Research and Development Center, and Aerospace Corporation. Dr. Chang’s experience includes research on footwear and floor contact, surface roughness measurement, surface friction and lubrication, ball bearing dynamics, wear, viscoelasticity, and whole body vibration. He has published in a number of journals, including Safety Science, Ergonomics, Applied Ergonomics, Journal of Tribology, International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, Professional Safety, Wear, Epidemiology, Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health, Work, Occupational Medicine, Journal of Safety Research, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, and STLE Tribology Transactions. In recognition of his work in the area of slips and falls research, he received the Ergonomic Society’s 2003 William F. Floyd Award and was named a Fellow by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2005 and by the Ergonomics Society in the UK in 2006. He was a recipient of the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Partnering Award for Worker Health and Safety from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in 2006. He is an editor of Ergonomics and a member of the editorial board of Journal of Testing and Evaluation. He also serves as the chair of the Technical Committee on Slips, Trips and Falls, International Ergonomics Association.